And Then There Were Ten
by Dracona Mortis
Summary: On a casual evening stroll through the woods, Isaac encounters a strange meteor, which in turn sends him tumbling head over ass into secrets he could never have guessed, and would have belonged in a children's TV show. But it's not all games and fun. He has to discover a lot of things, like why he was the one chosen to have this weird alien device attached to his wrist.


**This! Is the fruits of my labor over the course of a couple weeks. Damn school and it's.. Schoolness. But yeah. Omnitrix. Give it to Isaac. Fear for your life. Good times.**

**Don't ask where I came up with this idea, I know it's pretty stupid (everything I write is shitty, so no big surprise there) but whatever. I intend for either this fic or another I'm working on to replace 'Til Death Do Us Part. 'Cause it sucks. A lot. But right, ON WITH THE SHOW!**

Isaac ran as fast as he could, skirting around the corner in an alley, narrowly avoiding several laser shots. He continued to run, but unfortunately came to a dead end.

"Shit.." He muttered, and turned to look at three, red floating drones heading towards him at a quick pace, all of them having red "eyes" in the middle of their "faces", and spindly, metal, spiderlike legs they could use to stand if they needed to, saws and other sharp devices that would easily rip him apart if they got the chance on their legs.

Isaac looked around, glad that there was no one else in this particular alley. After his double check, he looked down at his wrist, and pulled the sleeve on that arm up a little bit, revealing the watchlike device he still hasn't been able to get off his wrist.

"Well, it's either do or die.." He muttered, and quickly got the display to pop up, then cycled through the silhouettes. The drones were getting too close, however, and finally he just decided to test his luck. Which wasn't the best plan, but what else could he do?

He slammed his hand down on the display, followed by the familiar, excruciating pain that came with using the damn thing. When he opened his eyes, or more specifically, his single eye, the drones had paused for a moment, and then started their advance again.

Isaac gave himself a quick inspection: Gray, smooth skin separated into large sections by large, random black cracks going across his body. No legs, but instead a ghostlike tail. He barely managed to avoid the drones' lasers, and went right into a wall as he lunged.

Literally. Into it.

He continued to phase through the solid object, opting to just question it later, and came out the other side. Right into a restaurant. People gawked at Isaac, and he quickly disappeared into the ceiling, coming out of the top of the one story building.

Isaac turned around to come face to face with one of the drones. He slowly backed up, and then dove right back down into the building. Throwing caution to the wind, he continued to run - or rather, float - from the drones by going through multitudes of walls.

Just when he though he was safe in an empty, closed off baseball court, he turned around to see a tall.. Alien. He had what could only classify as a green squid face with red eyes similar to the drones, with red and black armor, as well as two green.. Things.. On either side of his head. Isaac blinked several times, and pressed down on the display to turn back to himself, having enough of floating.

"So you are the one that has the Omnitrix?" The alien questioned rhetorically, though Isaac didn't know what an Omnitrix was. The alien then stepped threateningly closer, saying, "Give it to me!" without a response from the human in front of it. It wasn't a question, it was a statement.

"I'm goin' out on a limb here, and guessing that this thing is the "Omnitrix". And just so you know, it won't come off. So unless you rip off my arm, then I'm going to come with it too." Isaac said simply, and then regretted it as the alien gave a roar of frustration, throwing several insults towards the engineer and the human race in general, and he realized that this thing wouldn't care if he had to rip Isaac's arm off or not to get the.. Omnitrix.

"Anyways..." Isaac started when the insults were finished, "Who are you? And better yet, _what? _I'm lookin' for species name here." He politely clasped his hands behind his back, but was actually cycling through the silhouettes, hoping that he got something like the raptor thing, or he was going to be royally fucked in the ass several times over.

"I am Vilgax! Conqueror of ten worlds, and true owner of the Omnitrix! Now give it to me, and stop wasting my time, _human." _He said the name of Isaac's race with a lot of venom laced into the word. Isaac raised a brow at "true owner of".

"I don't see it on your wrist." The engineer quipped. Then he realized something. "Wait.. You're the..? You're the goddamn fucknugget sending those drones!" Vilgax gave another, loud roar at that.

"DO NOT ADDRESS ME WITH SUCH LANGUAGE, HUMAN SCUM!" He yelled, definitely pissed off. Vilgax then started charging at Isaac, who pressed down on the display as he started to charge.

After all the pain, Isaac opened his eyes, to Vilgax very close and about to knock him on his ass. So he side stepped the raging alien, who stopped himself and turned around. Isaac noted that he was about the same height as Vilgax now, and looked down to see he had four arms, each one a dull, blood red.

"Huh.." He grunted in interest, but was pulled out of his by Mr. Conqueror of Ten Worlds roaring and charging again. Having no time to dodge, he shrugged and charged forward as well. Which wasn't as much as a mistake he thought it would be.

Apparently this.. Form.. Had a level of strength similar to Vilgax's. And Isaac also had two extra arms, so he was able to take advantage of that and punch the alien's exposed body parts, which was actually pretty soft and fleshy.

Like the yellow, glowing, infected flesh on Necromorphs. Except green and red with what looked like veins.

That thought alone was enough for him to go into a frenzy, with Vilgax roaring at him as he punched him in the squishy flesh even harder, eventually getting the alien to stagger away.

Isaac backpedaled away from the quickly recovering alien, trying to think of what to do. The commotion would probably attract the security, or god forbid, EarthGov, so he needed to get out of there quickly and quietly. With this in mind, he hit the Omnitrix symbol on his arm to turn back.

Vilgax shook his head to recover, and glared at Isaac with hatred that only the man could comprehend, urging the human to start backing away from the advancing conqueror while cycling through the silhouettes again.

But he was too late to find the one he needed to get away before he was charged by Vilgax, and then basically tackled into the ground. The wind was knocked from him, and he could barely breath under the weight of the very heavy alien, hearing a faint beeping sound, though really wasn't registering it as Vilgax was slowly crushing him.

A green hand the size of Isaac's whole head seized his throat, and lifted him into the air. The engineer tried prying Vilgax's fingers off of his neck, though it was all in vain. His vision rapidly got dark, but he had the mind to stop futilely struggling with the alien's fingers and barely managed to press down on the display.

The next thing Isaac knew, his face was in the ground. He took a moment to catch his breath, and lifted himself to his feet. He blinked several times, everything tinted a forest green. He looked down at his hands, and then at himself, giving his new body a once over.

White stomach, black on the back of his arms and on his legs, right below the knee. Sea green colored circuitry looking markings were all over the black parts of his body. Isaac looked up to see that Vilgax was mad as hell at his new transformation, though apparently surprised enough to have let go.

"Well uh.. Nice knowin' ya', Mr. Happy, but I gotta get home. Bye!" And with that, Isaac hauled ass out of there, and almost made it to the fence before large floodlights lit up, illuminating the dusk and blinding him for a moment.

Vilgax had disappeared, though big, two toed footprints proved he had escaped, apparently faster than he let on. Isaac looked up to see that the floodlights came from an EarthGov gunship, with agents heading towards him at a rapid pace, weapons drawn.

"Ah shit." Isaac said tiredly as he raised his hands in the air. He noted he was about a foot taller as the agents, all shorter than him, as they stopped within a couple feet of him and stared at him down the barrels of their Pulse Rifles.

"So. Hi guys. How's the families?" He said sarcastically as one of them dared to get closer to the strange life form. They all gave him glares in return.

The guy approaching him put his weapon down to pull out some cuffs, which were surprisingly able to fit Isaac's almost cartoonishly large wrists, who couldn't really object, since anything he did he would be shot for. On the outside he seemed calm and rather bored, but on the inside he was a tempest of rage just waiting to be released, EarthGov not exactly his most favorite organization.

"Move." The EarthGov agent said, pushing Isaac forward, and all of them gasped when the barrel of the gun went _through _him, Isaac gasping slightly himself as the Pulse Rifle appeared through the front of his stomach.

"Well that's new." He quipped, shuddering slightly at his robotic, monotone voice, sounding like an A.I. The agent quickly pulled his gun out of Isaac's stomach, the hole closing by itself, the transformed man giving an intrigued, "Hm.."

Isaac then got a genius idea.

He concentrated. Hard. _REALLY _hard. And when he felt a really weird sensation, he sees that he turned himself into a puddle of black, white, and sea green goop, much to the surprise (And disgust) of the EarthGov agents.

Isaac then promptly escapes by going between the legs of who he presumed to be the captain, and then manages to reform himself after squeezing through the links in the gate surrounding the basketball field, turning to look at the agents not knowing what to do.

He then gives a two fingered wave, but is cut short by several bullets flying through his chest and out his back, and although it hurt like a bitch, the bullet holes disappeared moments later.

Isaac ran off before the agents could come after him, pressing down on the Omnitrix display when a fair distance away. He turns to see the gunship shining it's floodlights in the alleys, coming near the one he escaped to, cursing as he ran while turning the dial on the display.

_I really seem to have been using this thing a lot... _Isaac thinks to himself as he finds the ghostlike creature and presses down, then barely managing to phase into a wall before the spotlights shined into his alley.

He poked his head out after a minute or so, eye darting around rapidly to check for anyone and anything. As soon as he exits the wall and turns his back, arms crossed as he thinks of what next, he hears a quiet, barely suppressed squeal, causing him to spin around defensively.

Isaac blinked several times at a young girl, and couldn't have been older than seven, staring at him in wonder. She had shorts and a T-shirt on, and no.. shoes. The girl was a bit ragged looking, leading Isaac to conclude she was homeless. The two stared at each other for a long while, not saying anything.

"A-are.. Are you a ghost, mister?" She asked quietly, twiddling her thumbs awkwardly. Isaac didn't know what to say honestly, only able to stare dumbly at her. For some reason, she reminded him of himself when he was young and in rather poor living conditions.

"..Well.. Kind of." He found his voice after a moment, cocking his head slightly to the side as he talks. "Where are you parents?" He inwardly cringed at his gasping, raspy voice.

"I.. I have no mommy and daddy... The mean people took them away from home.." Isaac's eye widened in surprise. Slavers. He's heard of people disappearing from colonies in secluded places, but never believed the gossip in the CEC mess hall.

"Oh.." He had nothing to say. Instead, he looked around for a moment, and then gazed back at her, kneeling in his floaty way to get to her eye level. "I have no mommy and daddy either." He said sympathetically, and was sort of telling the truth. He had no idea where his dad was, and his mom was probably dead by her own hand due to her worship of the Marker.

"Of course you don't, you're a ghost! Ghosts don't have mommies and daddies, silly!" Isaac couldn't help but give a short, quiet chuckle at her naivety and innocence.

"I'm a person too." He said, surprising himself at how he was going along with her, and not just walking/floating away like the sour asshole he usually was. She seemed surprised at his reply, eyes widening slightly.

"Really?"

"Mhm."

"What do you look like?"

"Not that great, really. I'm.. Plain. And old." He got a giggle out of the girl, and she gave him a hopeful look that he would show her what he looked like. But instead of doing that, he got a better idea.

"Are you hungry?" He asks, the smell of sweets wafting through the night air. He must've ended up near one of the bakeries. The girl's eyes widened even more, nodding vigorously. "Alright, hold on." He heard her gasp as he went through the wall, sneaking about until he found the back room of the bakery.

Isaac eyed all the assorted baked goods, looking for something that wouldn't be too unhealthy for the kid, but something she'd still enjoy. After a few moments, he spotted three particularly tasty looking blueberry muffins on a plate, having been taken out of the oven a couple minutes ago.

He cautiously floated up to the blueberries, not exactly having any problem with stealing a simple three muffins, especially to feed a young girl that couldn't fend for herself, and had no money to get any food.

As soon as his ghastly gray hand touched the plate, the door to the back room opened, and in came a teenager, probably about sixteen or seventeen. She stopped in her tracks at the sight of Isaac, dropping the dirty plates she had been holding, getting him to snap his head in her direction, eye wide with surprise.

"G.. G.. Th..." She stuttered incoherently, chocolate brown eyes wide at what appeared to be a ghost in the locked up back room. She clutched her hands in terror, trembling slightly.

"Uh..." Isaac's eye darted from the muffins to her several times, and noticed her shaking. "It's alright, I just.. Need these muffins." The teen nodded vigorously, braid whipping up and down. She was apparently scared of ghosts.

"Well I'll just uh.. Go.. now.." He muttered awkwardly, floating back through the wall. He looked around, and was relieved he didn't steal the muffins for nothing when he saw the girl was still there. She looked up when he appeared, and grinned when she saw the plate of muffins in his hands, which he generously gave her.

The girl surprised him with how fast and how much she could eat, scarfing down all three muffins in the span of a few minutes. Isaac was impressed, and chuckled when she let out a loud burp and then a quiet, "Excuse me."

"So, what's your name, kid?" He asked, ruffling her short, blonde hair that seemed _awfully _familiar. She gave him a small smile.

"Nicole..." That's all it took for Isaac to freeze, eye wide, every muscle tense and still. All it took was one little name for the floodgate to be opened, for all the memories to come back all at once. The good, the bad, the fear, acceptance, although he never truly was able to accept.

Unexpectedly, a wispy trail of grayish tears started to stream from Isaac's eye, and he had to look away from the girl and rub his eye. When he looked back, Nicole was gone, and the muffins he had gotten were...

Still there on the plate, getting colder by the second in the chilled autumn air.

Isaac couldn't believe it. A hallucination. It was a hallucination. A _fucking _hallucination! He thought that all those terrors were locked away in his dreams, not still haunting him when he was still conscious as well. The memories of Nicole Brennan made Isaac an emotional wreck, mixing together sadness, anger, and most of all, regret and guilt.

God he missed her.

Ellie could never fill that void, no matter how much she tried.

Isaac sat there in the dark alley, long after the Omnitrix timed out, long after the sun started to rise. He sat there, hugging his knees, eyes misty and glazed over as he stared forward at nothing, not even noticing Ellie as she walked by, and then gawking at him. When she shook him and yelled his name, he just stared at the wall opposite of where he was sitting.

Even when she saw the Omnitrix, glowing it's dull red, and even when she shook him so hard it was like she was gonna rip his arm off, he just sat there. He didn't feel it. He didn't hear her. All she was was a distant, incoherent voice he could barely hear. A nagging voice telling him to come back, to talk to her, to do anything.

But he couldn't.

Because in the shadows of the other wall, there was a figure mirroring him. The figure had everything, from his clothes to his face. But the way the figure looked at him, with an animalistic, feral ferocity in it's blood red eyes. The way it grinned with it's razor sharp teeth. Isaac couldn't tear his gaze away from it as it stared at him, torturing him with all the memories. Breaking him even more.

Ellie thought she could fix him.

No one could fix him.


End file.
